The Barbican Centre crowd were wowed by a match-defining run from Trump of seven frames in a row which took him from 3-1 behind to 8-3 ahead and left Allen with too much ground to make up.

Allen went close to pulling off the spectacular comeback but he rattled a long red in the jaws of a corner pocket at the start of frame 18 and Trump, having spent so much of the evening in his chair, seized his big chance with a rapid match-clinching 91 break.

It was a reminder of the "naughty" snooker Trump spoke of over the past week, the brand which has turned him from a precocious youngster to the most exciting player in the game just now.

It was Antrim cueman Allen's first major final in his career and came at the end of a week when he caused controversy away from the table.

Allen called for World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn to hand over responsibility for the running of the game and found himself facing the possibility of legal action from the veteran sports promoter, who took offence at the personal nature of the 25-year-old's remarks.

That was defused to an extent today when Hearn said he would happily meet with Allen at the World Snooker AGM on December 19, and Allen said tonight he would rather enter face-to-face talks than head to court.

It had taken special snooker from the Northern Irishman, who has reported positive progress in his battle with depression, to divert attention from his scathing criticism of paymaster Hearn.

Allen provided the highlight of the opening session with a sparkling total clearance of 141 in the third frame of the match, but breaks of 52, 62, 75 and 61 nudged Trump 5-3 ahead.

It was crucial for Allen that he should concede no further ground in the early stages of the evening, but whatever his intentions it was one thing intending to halt Trump and another putting his plans into practice.

Trump continued his afternoon streak into the evening, taking the opening frame of the evening with an immaculate 109, adding the next with 78 when Allen lost position after reaching 40, and extending his lead to 8-3 with a 74.

That made it seven frames in succession and Allen needed to talk himself into a positive frame of mind at the evening mid-session interval.

Whatever his thoughts were, instant results followed as Allen fired in a thrilling 139 followed by a 129.

That took Allen's total of centuries in the match to three, following an earlier 141.

Trump replied with 76, moving him 9-5 in front, but Allen responded with century number four from his cue, a 125.

He narrowed the gap even further, and then a 95 made it 9-8.

But Trump, though rattled, was not finished and held his nerve to get over the winning line.